India amongst top 3 drivers for downloads on Google Play

Android is increasingly becoming the most dominant platform used in India. Google’s new launch of AndroidOne talks a lot about the potential India has. The growing smartphone penetration along with major smartphone launches in India is fueling the smartphone revolution here. All these efforts are helping app developers spread their apps to a wider audience, a great boost to the ecosystem.

India among top 3 globally

India climbed two spots to become the #3 country in Google Play downloads for Q2 2014. India hadn’t entered the top three since Q3 2013, but it seems to be making a comeback. According to IDC, India was the fastest-growing market in Asia-Pacific smartphone shipments from Q1 2013 to Q1 2014. The large number of consumers switching from feature phones to smartphones likely contributed to India’s success on Google Play.

Even with this quarter’s impressive download rates, smartphone penetration in India — the world’s second most populated country — is only 10%. IDC projects India’s smartphone penetration to rise noticeably in the future as additional low-cost smartphone options hit the market and vendors increasingly target less populated regions. Strong Google Play downloads combined with future smartphone adoption could help set the stage for rapid growth in India’s mobile app-related revenue by 2017.

Google Play widens its lead in app downloads

Google Play worldwide quarterly downloads exceeded iOS App Store downloads by around 60% in Q2 2014, up from about 45% last quarter. The explosive growth was driven by emerging markets, with Brazil continuing its rise, and Thailand and India seeing significant increases in Google Play downloads in Q2 2014. The rapid surge in Google Play downloads has been remarkable. In the Q2 2013 Market Index, Google Play downloads were only 10% higher than iOS App Store downloads.

India is also witnessing an interesting trend of increase of 20% growth Q-o-Q mobile internet users in India to 155 million by March 2014. According to the IAMAI, urban India will continue to account for a large percentage of mobile internet users across the country and is expected to reach 126 million by March 2014 and touch 153 million users by June 2014. Significantly, a drastic growth was witnessed in the number of users of mobile internet in rural India and will register an impressive 50% growth to reach 32 million by June 2014.